Mice near you

Mice are mostly active after dark and tend to run along walls rather than across open floors, so the evidence collects along their routes. Where you find it tells a technician how the mice move through the house, where traps should go and which gaps to seal first.

Health Canada describes the house mouse as having large ears and fur that ranges from light brown to dark grey, with a lighter belly. The deer mouse is brown or grey with a white belly and white feet, and the white underside of its tail is the easiest way to recognize it.

Which one you have shapes the plan. A house mouse in a city kitchen is mainly a contamination and damage problem. Deer mice are more typical of cottages, rural houses, garages and sheds, and since Health Canada names them as the most common carrier of hantavirus, their droppings and nests call for extra caution, and a heavily used or long-closed space is a job for a professional crew.

Health Canada says mice can squeeze through cracks as small as a dime, so the openings that matter are far smaller than most people look for. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends sealing holes with wire screening, steel wool, metal flashing or cement. A thorough mouse-proofing job goes around the whole house and pays particular attention to these spots.

For mice already indoors, Health Canada says snap traps and electronic traps are easy to use and very effective when they are well positioned and set properly, and that they generally kill instantly. Traps also leave a mouse you can find and remove, which matters in a house, where a poisoned mouse may die inside a wall or under a floor.

Bait has its place, mostly in garages, crawl spaces and around the exterior when many mice are coming in. Health Canada requires poisoned baits to be in a tamper-proof bait station wherever children and pets can reach them. Products sold to homeowners must come packaged with a station and be solid or block baits, and domestic products with the anticoagulants brodifacoum, bromadiolone and difethialone are prohibited.

Any mouse cleanup follows the Public Health Agency of Canada's hantavirus steps set out in the rodents guide: gloves, a respirator in confined spaces, a disinfectant or a mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water left to soak for 10 minutes, and never sweeping or vacuuming droppings. PHAC notes a higher risk around rodent habitats in and near homes, trailers, cottages, campsites, farm buildings, construction sites and garden and storage sheds. A mouse problem leaves more behind than droppings.

Calls about mice climb when autumn nights turn cold and mice look for warm shelter close to a steady food supply. Health Canada notes that deer mice in particular may invade buildings near fields and woodlands in the fall. Late summer is the time to act, while gaps are easy to reach and before mice have started nesting inside.

In a multi-unit building, mice travel through shared walls, pipe chases and garbage rooms, so trapping in one unit rarely ends the problem. Effective control covers the affected unit, the units around it and the common areas, and sealing is done where pipes and wiring pass between units. In a condo, the board manages the common elements, so report activity to the property manager as well.

In Ontario, the Landlord and Tenant Board names mice among the pests a landlord must take steps to control. In Quebec, the Tribunal administratif du logement lists rodents such as rats or mice among the conditions that can make a dwelling unsanitary; the landlord must make the dwelling fit for habitation, and a tenant can apply for an order to carry out work, a rent reduction, damages or cancellation of the lease. Tell the landlord in writing and keep a copy.